macOS Big Sur is freezing older MacBook Pros — what to do

(Epitome credit: Henry T. Casey)

If you're a MacBook Pro owner from 2013, yous may have noticed the black screen of death while installing the latest macOS Big Sur update. Well, y'all're not alone.

The black screen result seems to exist nearly common with xiii-inch models from 2013 and 2014, per a report by MacRumors. Author Hartley Charlton saw complaints pop up on Reddit, forums, and Apple's back up site. Problems are non limited to 2013 and 2014 models withal, and do include Apple's latest machines.

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Weirdly, the common set of troubleshooting fixes, like launching in prophylactic mode, resetting NVRAM, SMC reset, or internet recovery does not seem to exist working.

At the moment, at that place doesn't seem to be a fix. According to a commenter on Reddit, Apple tree support suggested scheduling a repair with a technician. And according to an Apple tree Support thread, the issue has been escalated to the Apple applied science team, pregnant that higher ups at the Cupertino-based company are aware of the problem.

Users on Reddit are discussing a host of other issues, such equally the loss of network connectivity on a 2018 model and external monitor flickering. User Booty_Pincher, who owns a 2020 iMac, is also running into the blank black screen trouble.

Some other user was able to become past the black screen of death by restarting multiple times in safe mode until it eventually worked. The user made a backup on Fourth dimension Auto immediately. Some other user also restarted multiple times until it did install only for their machine to get stuck on a black screen after on.

Big Sur is a massive update and brings with it a slew of improvements, including a revamped design, a greatly improved Safari browser, control eye and widgets, Outlook, and security upgrades.

Given the hype around Big Sur, information technology's led to a huge increase in downloads from users, slowing Apple's servers. And given that newer Macs at present verify apps each time with Apple'southward servers as a malware security check, it's merely calculation to the slowdown. Some users accept been unable to instal Big Sur altogether, with computers showing installation errors.

If y'all own a late 2013 to mid 2014 thirteen-inch MacBook Pro, it's probably best to concord off on updating to macOS Big Sur for at present. And honestly, given the wide range of issues users are reporting across many models, it might be best to not upgrade whatsoever device until Apple tree problems an update.

Imad Khan is news editor at Tom's Guide, helping direct the day's breaking coverage. Prior to working at the site, Imad was a full-time freelancer, with bylines at the New York Times, the Washington Mail service and ESPN. Outside of work, yous tin notice him sitting blankly in forepart of a Word document trying desperately to write the starting time pages of a new volume.